Origin

The first meaning of capital was ‘to do with the head or the top of something’. From this evolved such modern meanings as ‘the large form of a letter’ and ‘the chief city or town in a country’. The word goes back to Latin caput ‘head’. Capital in the financial sense was originally the capital stock of a company or trader, their main or original funds. The use as an adjective meaning ‘excellent’, now old-fashioned, dates from the mid 18th century. The capital of a column comes via French from Latin capitellum ‘a little head’. To capitulate (mid 16th century) is to admit that you are defeated and surrender. When it first entered the language it meant ‘to parley or draw up terms’, having come via French from medieval Latin capitulare ‘to draw up under headings’. Like capital, its ultimate root is Latin caput ‘head’, source also of cap, chapter, chief (Middle English), and captain (Late Middle English), both the ‘head’ of a group of people, and decapitate (early 17th century).